Australian Renewable Energy Agency Backs Vanadium Flow Battery Project In Outback SA

Key points:

Federal Government agency the REA has put nearly $6 million toward the utility-scale vanadium flow battery

It says the technology could “play a major role” in addressing Australia’s need for increased “heavy-duty” energy storage

The property of Yadlamalka Energy chairperson Andrew Doman, near Hawker in SA’s central outback, will house the $20.3 million project

Technology first discovered at the University of New South Wales in the 1980s will be “coming home” to Australia on an industrial scale, with Australia’s Renewable Energy Agency backing construction of the country’s first utility-scale vanadium flow battery in outback South Australia.

The independent Federal Government agency has granted the project nearly $6 million, saying the technology could “play a major role” in addressing Australia’s need for increased “heavy-duty” energy storage as renewable energy generation increases.

The agency’s chief executive Darren Miller said flow batteries complimented “the role of more established technologies such as pumped hydro energy storage and lithium-ion batteries in the Australian market”.

The battery technology stores energy as a liquid energy electrolyte, separating the energy storage from the power generation, meaning it does “not degrade like lithium-ion batteries”, according to the agency.

“They can be scaled and located with greater flexibility than pumped hydro energy storage, which may increase the potential applications for this technology,” it said.

Matt Harper of Invinity Energy Systems, which is supplying the project’s batteries, said the technology’s use of electrolytes enabled it to store large amounts of energy for longer.

“Because we’re storing the energy in that liquid flowing component, we can very easily store many, many hours of storage all at once,” he said.

“Tied to a solar-generating array, we can absorb four, six, eight hours of electricity during the day when the sun is shining at its brightest.

“Then we can provide that four to six hours of energy that people need in the evening, providing clean energy on demand.

“You end up with a technology that can serve the grid for decades on end, [without] that degradation that you see in a conventional lithium battery.”

Key points:

Federal Government agency the REA has put nearly $6 million toward the utility-scale vanadium flow battery

It says the technology could “play a major role” in addressing Australia’s need for increased “heavy-duty” energy storage

The property of Yadlamalka Energy chairperson Andrew Doman, near Hawker in SA’s central outback, will house the $20.3 million project

“What all the solar farms realise is the price they earn for electricity at midday, when the sun is shining mostly, is relatively low, and they all wish they could be producing electricity at night, when the price is three to four times what it is at midday,” he said.

“That’s the opportunity here, to store at midday and pump it out at 7pm at night when everyone’s cooking.

“For anyone who has a solar farm, who would like to retrofit these batteries, we will help them.”

Technology ‘coming home’

Mr Doman said he was excited for construction to begin on his Yadlamalka property, which had been in his family for more than a century, at the beginning of next year.

He said it was particularly exciting that the project’s flow battery technology was originally discovered by University of NSW researchers in the 1980s.

“It’s used worldwide, [but] it’s an Australian discovery and invention,” he said.

“It’s almost like it’s coming home, in a way.”

He said he hoped it led to a proliferation of the technology around the country.

“This is a demonstration project for how you provide medium-term, medium-duration battery storage into the grid,” he said.

“This is why it’s a project that is relevant for the whole of Australia.”

The Marshall Liberal Government this year committed to SA running on 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030 and has helped drive a push for greater grid stability.

Earlier this year, the state and federal governments helped expand SA’s Horsdale Tesla battery by 50 per cent.

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